The Mormon Tapes

One can chuckle over the timing of Andrew Sullivan’s posting a video of Mormon rituals, but the thing itself is quite interesting — and illuminating for those (like this writer) who rather lazily and ignorantly classified Mormonism as basically just a somewhat exotic 19th century variant of Protestantism.

I found the “oath of vengeance” against America, once part of the secret oath leading Mormons swear, particularly worthy of note. Though this segment of the oath was discontinued from the Mormon liturgy sometime in the 1920s, Mormons of Romney’s parents’ generation must have grown up with it. It is derived from the Mormon desire to avenge the killing of some of their church founders, and was no doubt fueled by resentment of the forced exile Mormon polygamists were subjected to.

One thing to take from the story is how much ethnic and religious hatreds and reconciliations are malleable and socially constructed. Mormons are now perceived among the most white bread and mainstream American groups — and Romney’s success at wooing evangelicals (who might be expected to be seriously put off by Mormon beliefs) is one testament to that. Plainly Mormons could have continued to harvest a “never forget” attitude, raising their children to take vengeance, looking in every slight for evidence of the reemergence of ancient hatreds, demanding reparations, in short bought into the full repertoire of the ethnic grievance industry. Evidently they have not. There are facets of Rommey which trouble me greatly, but the ability of he and his fellow Mormons to “get over it” is rather remarkable.

MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR

Hide 12 comments

12 Responses to The Mormon Tapes

You’ve got a point to a certain extent, but seriously, the grievance here is the murder of a handful of people over a period of a couple of decades at most. It’s not really comparable to genocide or slavery or ethnic cleansing that affects millions of people and lasts over centuries. I’d object to that sort of moral equivalence!

That the Mormons would need to “get over it” is an interesting position. The Mormon-promoted image of an unjustly persecuted, humble people seeking only to worship as they chose isn’t exactly true. Certainly the persecutions heaped upon them were inexcusably mindless and cruel, but for their part the Mormons committed offenses of their own. Perhaps the rest of the world deserves credit for its willingness to “get over” the Mormon church’s highly questionable past.

If Mormons are good at anything, it’s rebranding themselves, which they have done more than once with aplomb. In the 70s they emerged to champion clean living, clean-cut youth, and family values, offering solace to a generation of parents up in arms about hippie-esque youth. But now that the hippie-esque youth are parents themselves, 70s-style Mormon values seem reactionary, stodgy, and, in some instances, anti-human rights.

So it is that the church is attempting yet another rebrand, this time trying to look more like mainstream Christianity. This poses some problems. One is that the Mormon church actively seeks converts; and what point is there in converting to a faith that’s just like all the others? Another is that, at its core, Mormonism differs dramatically from mainstream Christianity, as its claim to authority attests and the temple ceremony video shows. (Am I alone in finding that ceremony creepy?) Mormon church hierarchy is still sexist and church doctrine is still racist (though it no longer practices racism, at least not overtly). They still wear special underwear they believe is a “shield and protection.” They believe theirs is the only true church. They believe the Garden of Eden was in Missouri. They believe God is married and may be a polygamist himself.

Speaking of polygamy, though mainstream Mormonism would distance itself from contemporary plyg groups, it defends its own foray into polygamy as God-mandated, allows for multiple wives in the hereafter, and holds that God may someday reinstate polygamy. The book “It’s Not About the Sex My A**” by ex-polygamist wife Joanne Hanks does a good job explaining much of that. For another good reference, see Section 132 of the book of Doctrine and Covenants (which the Mormons regard as scripture), where God states that taking multiple wives is a commandment.

I did not feel like the author was suggesting that the Mormons have mastered a universally applicable social reconciliation made easy, I merely thought he pointed out that the Mormon experience shows that reconciliation is indeed possible, and that working towards that possibility is commendable. I think thats a hopeful thought, and for that I like this piece for the points it does make, even if it fails to complete the picture on a global historical scale. Sometimes you have to stop looking at how big the problem is and start looking for solutions, even if the solitions are small at first.

As a Mormon, I can’t believe that Andrew Sullivan would post this video or that others would film it. It is incredibly offensive.

The thing that always gets me about these kinds of videos and criticism is that they make our church and beliefs sound as strange and as bad as possible. It would be like if I described your average Christian as believing that “a 2000 year old Jewish Carpenter lives in the sky and to recognize his divinity they eat a cracker once a week”. While the statement is not technically a lie or false, it is demeaning and would never be used by a Christian to describe his or her faith. The same goes for that entire video or many other things I have seen over the last year depicting Mormons as odd.

I’m one of the Fundies, who attends an AoG church, and there is no way that I will vote for a Mormon. I was stationed in Utah during the late 70s, and got to know quite a few Mormons. While one on one they were nice, their religious beliefs bordered on the insane.
There are lots of good reasons to vote against Mitty, such as his support for whatever Israel’s leaders tell him, but in the end, I will not vote for a member of a cult, be it Scientology, Jim Jones(The Koolaid man), or the Church of LDS.
I’ll probably vote for either Gary Johnson, or Obama, come election day.
Longtime Reader, not all of us are that easy to manipulate, but there are too many that have, to the detriment of our nation.

I’m a Catholic who wavers between finding LDS tenets and practices either non-Christian or merely heretical, and rather strongly disapproves of Gov. Romney. That said, I thought that video and Sullivan’s choice to post it were despicable and bigoted.

The treatment of Mormons and their (admittedly rather odd and implausible) faith in this country has been and remains shameful. I will be unhappy for many reasons if Romney wins, but if it can lessen the prejudice Mormon folks have to endure, that will be a good thing for the country.